french driving

This morning, on our bike ride to work, I was stopped at a crosswalk, waiting to cross. Cars were going by at the typical formula 1 speeds common in France, and I noticed a strange thing: there was a car in the bike lane across the street. This is not necessarily unusual, because he was using what Chloe and I call the "French Parking Pass": your hazard lights. Parked on the sidewalk in front of a fire hydrant? Fine as long as your hazards are on. Parked in the middle of the road blocking traffic? No problem with the blinkers on.

Anyway, when the little walking man turned green, I watched as this car CROSSED THE STREET BY DRIVING IN THE CROSSWALK. It then continued driving down the sidewalk and into the road, partially blocking the bike lane as it did this.

The strange thing about this is that it didnt seem that odd to me: I'm no longer
shocked by French driving! This brings up an interesting question, though: why are the french (they are certainly not alone in this) apparently completeley unencumbered by the laws of the road? I think the answer can be found in the motto of the French Republic: Liberté , égalité , fraternité . This motto is taken much more to heart than, for example "In God we Trust", and in most parts of French life its rather refreshing. When applied to driving, its a little less so:

Liberté  to do whatever the hell you want: the road signs are just humble suggestions, which should not impeach on your liberté to drive in reverse at 100 kmph against traffic on a one way street to get into a parking spot. Égalité  of right of way (when you dont have it): the road belongs to all of us, so even though the law states that the person in the roundabout has the right-of-way, égalité argues that we all have the right of way, and I am affirming that by lurching into the roundabout and cutting everyone off. Fraternité : ok this is where my theory fizzles; there is simply nothing approaching fraternité on French roads. But two out of three ain't bad.



No blog about life in france can be considered complete without a post on the driving, so thats out of the way.

Antiques and Ham

Earlier in the week we saw signs for a "Brocante et Jambon" fair: Antiques and... Ham?! No of our friends really knew what this meant, but I thought it was probably some colorful french expression dating back several centuries. You know; back when hams were cured in armoires... that type of thing. It turned out that they were actually selling ham and antiques, and was a pretty big deal -- almost the same scale as Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Anyway, we passed through the normal market at La Halle (photo above and below)




and on to the Ham and Antiques fair:







And WELL WELL WELL! Look who we have here!




heres an enlargement:



The retiring crazy antique lady #2! Still very much in the game, I'd say. A few moments after I surreptitiously took this photo she produced a huge wad of cash, and started peeling off bills to pay for something or other.


We found some decent chairs which were not too old, but better than our shabby folding chairs: $40 euro for 3, so we werent really that motivated to find chairs. There were some nice brasserie chairs next door:





with cool designs on the seats, and very solid: 800 euro for 8. A few stalls down we saw these:




(the ones on the right). These were in Oak, quite solid, with newly redone seats, 5 for 300 euro. After some hemming and hawing, we bought them! It took two tram rides back and forth to get them home (we had the other three chairs as well), but they provided convenient seating at the tram stop:

although it was a little tight in the elevator:


The big big news for us was that we found an armoire that we both loved, and got a decent deal on it! Okay, I realize furniture purchases might not be exciting to everyone, but after spending so much time looking at them, its exciting to finally find one. They gave us a deal on the delivery too. Here it is:









Original metal hardware and lock, in Walnut with Ash panels in the front and the original Fir back. Mid 1800's from Bresse. WOOHOOOO! Delivery a week from now.

Je suis une GRAND MUZZEHR

Also on todays menu: A Louis 15 (i think) armoire in oak from Bresse (i think) with the original metal hardware and a beautiful patina for 1900 euro:


which seems like a reasonable price. One pane from the front had been repaired, as had the cornice. This thing was MASSIVE.

We also went back to the store that has the coveted (but 2590 euro) armoire with the two crazy ladies. It felt a little like "Ground Hogs Day" walking in to the store, since neither of them remembered having shown us the armoire before. As a result, we were compelled to go through the whole simultalking thing again. Its not really as bad as it sounds, because they're both charming and hilarious. The mother was sitting in the same chair as last time, and insisted that we move the tables out in order to make room to view the armoire, thereby blocking herself in the midst of the antiques:



Heres some shots of the awesome armoire of expensiveness: louis15/16, all in walnut, yadda yadda yadda






And of their homme debout in merisier like our new table, which is also very beautiful , and a little less money (2300 euro):



(look at the hinges on it! all original)

The ladies were in high spirits today, and went into more detail about the origins of the name "homme debout", and how it comes from the fact that royalists used to hide in them when the republicans came to kill them. I think I missed something, because it doesnt seem like it would fool anyone, but maybe the republicans were in a hurry.

I was on the verge of laughter throughout our conversation, and at one point the older lady exclaimed "Oui! Je suis une GRAND MUZZERE!!", but I dont remember the context. Honestly, I was a little lost for most of it. Also, I find the whole simultalking thing a little stressful, since I dont want to seem like I'm being rude to one of them by not listening to them. When I took the picture of her, she started talking about how another american had taken her picture: when Grenoble was liberated! Apparently it was a funny picture, because she was next to another GI, who was very tall. She, by contrast was "TRES PETITE!" as she practically jumped up from her chair in the sea of antiques to show us. They questioned us about whether Americans support the war in Iraq, and why, and we had to explain that its because americans are very, very, stupid. On the way out, the mother told us how much she loved being in her daughters shop, and how she (her daughter) had such beautiful things, and how much it pleased her; it was very touching.

BUSTED

yeah thats right: busted. Today we went to that consignment place again, and who did we see when we walked in? Crazy antique lady #2, who supposedly was going into retirement (apparently a ploy to think that you can get her to let go of stuff for cheaper). After we passed her, I turned my head to chloe and mouthed "Did you see who that was?", but halfway through, I could see in her expression that she had seen the same thing. Crazy antique lady doesnt look very retired here:

here:

or here:



more like shes looking for more stuff to mark up 200%! At least we know we are in the right place. Todays gem:



I dont know if footstool is a pun in french too... I have to check that out

voted!

We sent off our absentee ballots today. We're not registered in a swing state, but its the principle of it.

Also I made a firm commitment to never buy Decathlon (quechua) branded gear ever again. Sure, I was willing to put up with our decathlon bikes that don't shift anymore. I was a little less happy that Chloes fancy Quechua carbon fibre trekking poles exploded after one use. This morning, however, my "waterproof" biking pants ended up being "not waterproof at all" and my ass has been wet all morning.

provence monday

yes, we even took monday off! So we headed off early to get some climbing in at St Leger again, and did some nice climbs in sector Al Andaluze, and then I got another thrashing on Kiwasi. SERENITY NOW! On the way back to the Mas Solige, we stopped at another winery called Le Domaine Morand near le Mont Ventoux. This one was in the middle of the vineyards and olive groves, and the woman running it was very nice. We bought a few bottles here too. the funny thing is that you could buy AOC wine in bulk out of huge steel containers with wine-guns:



1.40 euro a litre!

We also stopped by a small town called Baumes-de-Venise, and bought some great olive oil with one of those cool curved dispenser tops (little things keep me happy).

After cramming the table back into the clio, we drove north through Orange to visit the woman who sold us the table in Mornas. She had some cool armoires:





The second one had a secret drawer that you access after removing a drawer, sliding a secret panel to the right, and sliding the bottom of the drawer towards you. Its kind of obvious that theres something there:



but cool nevertheless. The insignia at the bottom is a chestnut, and is apparently common in armoires from the Ardeche region.

By the time we made it home, we were completeley exhausted. After climbing for 4 or five hours and touring around, we were ready to fall asleep as soon as we walked in the door. Unfortunately, we had to keep circling the block because no parking was to be found. We finally found a space, and to our dismay discovered that the elevator was broken! Several refreshing trips later (up 7 flights of stairs), we collapsed. Although I didnt think it was possible, I discovered that an antique table and fifteen bottles of wine lose some of their charm after the fourth landing. Here are some pictures of our booty:

provence sunday

Sunday is market day in Isle Sur La Sorgue, and despite the extreme soreness that impregnated our backs and arms, we got up early-ish to try to get a parking spot. I found the market a little disappointing; it had few of the quirks of the Grenoble flea market, and a lot of things that you could get at your local supermarket. However, there were a few gems:



like this little guy. Theres a basket of baby dolls behind the box of rocks. The whole display, when interpreted as a carefully placed diorama yields some compelling questions: What kind of animal is under him? Perhaps a fallen comrade, who he is loyally defending even while the fur is peeling off his own hind feet? Maybe he is showing what happens to other small animals when they get too close to his box of rocks? Maybe the mounting board is actually a primitive fox snowoard? And what the hell kind of animal is that, anyway? A weasel? a fox? Its doesnt really look like either.

ANYWAY, there were some interesting things:

(taken by chloe)

including a Louis Phillipe rustic table that we bought on the condition that we could fit it into our Clio (it fit, but with about 2 cm). We escaped Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue in one piece at around 10:00 am, just when the masses were rolling in. After dropping the table off at the Mas Solige, we drove to Venasque:



and then on to Rousillon (picture at the top of this post). The last time I had come here with my mom and her long time friend Shelley, we had found a beautiful little cafe, hidden in one of the dead ends


that overlooks the red valleys that surround the town. So of course, this was our first stop, since Chloe was starting to get that far off look that says "feed me NOW". It was a little windy, and periodically peoples napkins would float lightly into the air and get plastered against chair legs and bread baskets. Sometimes small mostly-eaten pieces of bread would start scooting towards the end of the table. Everything, and especially the rasberry crumble was excellent. Heres chloe eating mine:




After taking some pictures, we drove back towards Carpentras, and through the beautiful hill town of Gordes



Of course, one thing that can get a little overwhelming is the fact that ALL the towns in this area are beautiful, so after a while you dont even care. Strangely, the part of Gordes that I find the most charming is its masonary. Beautiful white stone walls are used for both the houses and the walls lining the narrow roads that lead into the city. The color and uniformity remind me of Jerusalem a little.


Since we were near Vacqueyras, we finished the day with a little wine tasting. It was Sunday, so generally only the cooperatives were open, which arent as fun as the individual caves. We ended up in Vacqueyras, where I had been this spring with my mom and Shelley. We had stopped at a colorful little cave, where the wine guy had compared wines to beautiful young maidens: "to be enjoyed, but not when they are too young". I wasnt sure how Chloe would react to that kind of talk, so I steered us to the other side of town, where we found the Domain l'Oustau Des Lecques, a very small family run winery.

We pulled up to their winery, where a sign instructed us to press the bell if we wanted to taste wine. We did so, and after a brief exchange (chloe did the the talking while I hid behind her), a man in jeans and flip flops walked up and took us into the winery. Here we are in their caves:




They had quite a few wines, but the 2002, aged in oak casks (in the picture!) and the 2003 were amazing. I dont know any of the fancy wine language, but heres my best effort: "Extremely wine like, with notes of grapes, and a faint aroma of wine. The bouquet was bold and wine-esque. Legs were very long and wineish, with an unlikeley but undeniable winely finish.". We bought 10 bottles. I mean, at 4-7 euros depending on the vintage, how can you not? We also noticed that people in this region pronounce "vin" with a strange accent: more like "ving".


Finally, we went and checked out the eglise de Notre Dame, near Aubenas (?):